[Official] F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin


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Unless you're playing Football Manager, gaming on a laptop is fail :rofl:

*runs*

I've never completed Fear 1, I probably should. Played about half of it!

You sound just like me Audio. Your reasons may be different, but it just scared the crap out of me. :p

Question. Can anyone clarify whether I'll need to play the expansion to FEAR1 in order to understand the story of FEAR2?

I am a huge fan of the original. I played it through 3x, and played multiplayer for a bit. However, I never got around to playing the expansion, whatever it was called (I can't even remember, hah). I am definitely going to pick this one up if it's on par with the original; but, I'm worried that I may have missed something, story wise, by not having played the expansion.

To be honest, I'm not optimistic about FEAR 2, for numerous reasons. Firstly, the graphics are only slightly better than the original, with improved lighting, and there are some destructible environments too. Once you look past the special effects and lighting, the graphics in the game are, to be frank, not much better than Doom 3 was, which was released before FEAR 1. FEAR 2 doesn't, graphics wise, and as a whole, appear all that different from FEAR, the original.

The other thing is the horror element. FEAR was great for this, and if they could of added more variety into the levels then it would have been even better. However, before it was even in development, Monolith had stated they were aiming to make more open spaces, which, for me at least, completely ruins the horror element. Granted, there are some claustrophobic one offs from what I have seen, but when they brought in the EPAs, I knew it didn't look good. The point of a survival-horror is that you struggle, and things aren't always easy.

The unofficial expansions didn't help either (although that couldn't be helped), but I'm just not expecting something amazing out of this. I was hoping to do a writeup on the new, innovative features that would be shown in FEAR 2, just like we saw in FEAR 1, only to find.. there weren't any.

Question. Can anyone clarify whether I'll need to play the expansion to FEAR1 in order to understand the story of FEAR2?

I am a huge fan of the original. I played it through 3x, and played multiplayer for a bit. However, I never got around to playing the expansion, whatever it was called (I can't even remember, hah). I am definitely going to pick this one up if it's on par with the original; but, I'm worried that I may have missed something, story wise, by not having played the expansion.

FEAR 2 ignores the 2 expansions, because they weren't made by Monolith. I bought one of the expansions, and stopped playing after about 5 minutes into it. It's dull to be frank, as the reviews of the expansions will tell you. FEAR 2 is independant of them, and carries on from where FEAR 1 left off.

To be honest, I'm not optimistic about FEAR 2, for numerous reasons. Firstly, the graphics are only slightly better than the original, with improved lighting, and there are some destructible environments too. Once you look past the special effects and lighting, the graphics in the game are, to be frank, not much better than Doom 3 was, which was released before FEAR 1. FEAR 2 doesn't, graphics wise, and as a whole, appear all that different from FEAR, the original.

The other thing is the horror element. FEAR was great for this, and if they could of added more variety into the levels then it would have been even better. However, before it was even in development, Monolith had stated they were aiming to make more open spaces, which, for me at least, completely ruins the horror element. Granted, there are some claustrophobic one offs from what I have seen, but when they brought in the EPAs, I knew it didn't look good. The point of a survival-horror is that you struggle, and things aren't always easy.

The unofficial expansions didn't help either (although that couldn't be helped), but I'm just not expecting something amazing out of this. I was hoping to do a writeup on the new, innovative features that would be shown in FEAR 2, just like we saw in FEAR 1, only to find.. there weren't any.

FEAR 2 ignores the 2 expansions, because they weren't made by Monolith. I bought one of the expansions, and stopped playing after about 5 minutes into it. It's dull to be frank, as the reviews of the expansions will tell you. FEAR 2 is independant of them, and carries on from where FEAR 1 left off.

Couldn't disagree more about the graphics. Even when it was first announced and shown on SpikeTV, the graphics looked far better than the original's. Screenshots don't really do it justice (IMO) if you haven't seen the videos. I went back and played the original recently, and it's crazy how much better F.E.A.R. 2 looks.

Is it the best looking game out there? Nah. Will it challenge Gears of War 2/Killzone 2? Nah. But I think it looks good, personally -- although to each his own :)

I'm not too worried about the horror aspect, as every preview so far has said it's very scary. I trust Monolith to make a scary game, at the very least. I have to agree with you, though... I'm not too excited about the EPAs. I know a lot of the people in the community wanted them, but I certainly don't. But Monolith did make Shogo, so I'm sure it'll be at least a decent change of pace. Still don't care for it, though.

If it's not any good, though (at least IMO)... believe me, I'll be the first to say it :)

(You're right about the expansions, though. Monolith ignores them. Extraction Point wasn't horrible, but Perseus Mandate certainly was. Neither holds a candle to the original, though.)

FEAR 2 ignores the 2 expansions, because they weren't made by Monolith. I bought one of the expansions, and stopped playing after about 5 minutes into it. It's dull to be frank, as the reviews of the expansions will tell you. FEAR 2 is independant of them, and carries on from where FEAR 1 left off.

Thanks Sazz. I'll stear clear of the expansions. Lets just hope the lack of innovative features in FEAR2 is overshadowed by a quality, lengthy single-player campaign. (Y)

Couldn't disagree more about the graphics. Even when it was first announced and shown on SpikeTV, the graphics looked far better than the original's. Screenshots don't really do it justice (IMO) if you haven't seen the videos. I went back and played the original recently, and it's crazy how much better F.E.A.R. 2 looks....

Well, it's a personal thing, but perhaps I should wait to play the demo before I say anymore regarding that.

Don't get me wrong, I really want FEAR 2 to be a damn good game; :) I spent many happy, if not frightened, hours playing FEAR, and would hope that FEAR 2 is the same. However, FEAR was new, and innovative, with graphics that made E3 drool, and gameplay to match. FEAR 2 just feels a little 'stale', if you will.

However, despite my negative tone towards it, I'll be getting the demo as soon as it's available, and, all being well, it'll be on my Steam pre-oder list too.

I'm purchasing FRAPS soon, so once the demos released I'll be putting some effort into making a video review of the game (or rather, a review with video, depending on how things go :))

Well, it's a personal thing, but perhaps I should wait to play the demo before I say anymore regarding that.

Don't get me wrong, I really want FEAR 2 to be a damn good game; :) I spent many happy, if not frightened, hours playing FEAR, and would hope that FEAR 2 is the same. However, FEAR was new, and innovative, with graphics that made E3 drool, and gameplay to match. FEAR 2 just feels a little 'stale', if you will.

However, despite my negative tone towards it, I'll be getting the demo as soon as it's available, and, all being well, it'll be on my Steam pre-oder list too.

I'm purchasing FRAPS soon, so once the demos released I'll be putting some effort into making a video review of the game (or rather, a review with video, depending on how things go :))

Yeah, I get what you're saying (Y)

Question. Can anyone clarify whether I'll need to play the expansion to FEAR1 in order to understand the story of FEAR2?

I am a huge fan of the original. I played it through 3x, and played multiplayer for a bit. However, I never got around to playing the expansion, whatever it was called (I can't even remember, hah). I am definitely going to pick this one up if it's on par with the original; but, I'm worried that I may have missed something, story wise, by not having played the expansion.

Wait, there's a STORYLINE to these games?

Paxton Fettle, that crazy guy!

I kid, I kid :laugh:.

PS3 owners:

"F.E.A.R. 2 Demo will become available today - January 15th for Qore Subscribers. Just open Qore Episode 8 and download."

Gonna check now.

UPDATE - Not available yet in US

Anyway, to answer Spacer's question; I really don't feel that you need to play the expansions to understand where FEAR 2 will be taking off from.

The amount of story telling in the expansions is pretty poor, you just learn a bit more about Project Origin I think.. Can't really remember what happens in them... I don't think I even bothered with the last expansion, the previous one made FEAR feel very stale after completing it(Or did I even bother with getting that far? :unsure:) and I felt my FEAR quota had been filled sufficiently.

I honestly think that the story is pretty rubbish, it's just awesome to shoot 5 people in the face right after a grenade you threw at them explodes all in slow-mo. The story's nice to have the background though.

But I'll be sure to check the demo out, I'm not entirely sure that my laptop will cope too well with it but It's worth a shot and I really enjoyed the original. FEAR's got some really good replay value, which I like in single player games.

Well I have to say, I just watched the Qore stuff on FEAR 2 since I could not get the Demo yet, and first and foremost, the graphics look noticeably better than the first one (on consoles I am talking about). Qore always does a very good job at showing straight gameplay video, and it really does look much, much, much better.

And I actually really liked the first game, but for some reason was not really looking forward to this game all that much, now watching the two preview vids on Qore, I am very much looking forward to it, and the MP actually looks much, much better than the first games, which was actually pretty damn fun.

The F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin demo is now out for Qore PS3 subscribers. The following message was posted on the F.E.A.R. 2 message board but the community manager:

I want everyone to know that the Community team has been trying to get permission to release the dates of the PC and Xbox demo for FEAR2. The best that I can tell you is that there will be an official announcement about the demo tomorrow. Please, check back us!

Best,

Yurei

That seems to be the response I'm hearing from everyone, which makes me extremely happy :) On a lot of PS3 forums there's now an argument over which will be better -- F.E.A.R. 2 or Killzone 2 :woot: PS3 owners certainly have a lot to be thankful for in February when it comes to FPS games!

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